I Graduated from Vancouver Film School in 2008 from the Game Design program. I started my career as a game designer doing contract work on a wide variety of projects for the web and mobile devices primarily. Most of it was free to play at the time and so I spent a lot of time trying to squeeze a fun and creative concept into projects that were more concerned with monetizing players and trapping them in compulsion loops than actually letting them have fun or experience something new. I got burnt out, lost my passion and stepped away. What kind of game designer did I want to be? Why did I go to school if I couldn’t actually innovate or tell meaningful stories? I grew up playing games and being inspired by designers like Kojima, so I chased that dream of mine only to find out that most times it was more about money than narrative and creativity. It took me a long time and a lot of obstacles, challenges, and doubt to get back into the industry. I was scared for a long time to try to do this again. At one point I fell out of love with games. I started thinking about a game in my head about a year ago. I thought about what I grew up playing, the designers I was inspired by, and most of all about what I wanted to play now and why so many games weren’t filling that hole for me. What did I have to say as a game designer now based off my past and my experiences? What was going to be my message to a player that might not ever know anything about me? This thing started to grow in my mind and take shape. I had cool mechanics that would be fun, and I knew the type of game I wanted to make, but it was missing something. It needed that hook. That one concept that made it different from everything else that’s been done. It was like a spark when it happened. It took me a while to find it but it was honestly more like it found me or like it was waiting for me. This process and journey, first by myself, and now with a small team has made me remember what I loved about games. Why I went to VFS over 16 years ago and why I was so passionate and driven. I’m back and this might be my last chance at this. To tell a story, create a world and characters, and take a player on a journey that maybe means something to them one day. To leave one thing behind that can inspire someone the way I was inspired.